The present invention relates to paperboard containers and, more particularly, to a shipping container of corrugated liner board material and method for manufacturing same.
RSC (regular slotted container) and HSC (half slotted container) boxes are in common use in shipping a variety of products where it is desired to have complete protection of the product, i.e., protection against both shipping damage and pilferage. However, such containers have distinct disadvantages which are inherent in their basic design. Thus, in the case of both the RSC and HSC containers, the bottom closure comprises foldable bottom flaps which are interleaved when folded to provide a two-ply floor for the product, the floor having gaps. In the case of the RSC container, the lid is also comprised of interleaved foldable top flaps. The double thickness of the material in both the bottom and top of such containers comprising the overlapping portions of the folded flaps contribute nothing to the stacking strength of the container and thus are useful only in the sense of protection of the product against pilferage. Accordingly, there has been a long felt need for a shipping container design, which without increasing the amount of corrugated board used, results in a shipping container of increased stacking strength that has a gapless floor, and yet provides complete protection of the shipped product against pilferage.
Although sometimes so employed, HSC and RSC containers are ill adapted to serve as display containers. When so used, they are provided with a tear out panel or panels in a side wall or opposite side walls of the container. When these are removed, the stacking strength of the container is greatly reduced, comprising substantially only the single ply or thickness of corrugated liner board in the opposite end walls. These end walls, although intact, are then prone to buckling in view of the removal of the tear out panels of the side walls.
Moreover it would be desirable for shipping containers to be provided with one or more sides already opened so that the goods in the container are partially exposed and accessible without greatly affecting the strength and structural integrity of the containers.
A related concern with shipping containers is that when the strength is built solely into the outer perimeter walls thereof, an offset vertical force, such as may be caused by a box that is stacked on top which is offset, may cause the underlying box to collapse or crush.
It is thus an object of the present invention to overcome the foregoing and other disadvantages of HSC and RSC containers.